It is easy to be caught up in a lifestyle in which competitive market-driven forces whip up a frenzy of ‘need’ for bigger, brighter, newer and supposedly better. Through glossy advertising, we’re sold an illusion that happiness and satisfaction can be bought with the latest and greatest material possessions. Even the promotion of ‘light-green’ or so-called sustainable living often involves buying more stuff.

So it is refreshing to hear discussion about how to move beyond growth economics and towards a ‘steady-state’ economy, with a focus on simpler, less consumptive ways of living.

Last week at the University of New South Wales, the 2014 Australian Academy of Science Fenner Conference on the Environment topic was: Addicted to Growth? How to move to a Steady State Economy in Australia  This spawned an article about life in a degrowth economy on The Conversation website, written by research fellow at Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute at University of Melbourne, Samuel Alexander.  Continue reading →